Drink Red Wine - Stay Young?

Today's NY Times has an article about a new study that shows resevatrol mimics the effects of a calorie restriction diet. Click here for the whole article.

Serious scientists have long derided the idea of life-extending elixirs, but the door has now been opened to drugs that exploit an ancient biological survival mechanism, that of switching the body’s resources from fertility to tissue maintenance. The improved tissue maintenance seems to extend life by cutting down on the degenerative diseases of aging.

The reflex can be prompted by a faminelike diet, known as caloric restriction, which extends the life of laboratory rodents by up to 30 percent but is far too hard for most people to keep to and in any case has not been proven to work in humans.

The Wisconsin scientists used a dose on mice equivalent to just 35 bottles a day. But red wine contains many other resveratrol-like compounds that may also be beneficial. Taking these into account, as well as mice’s higher metabolic rate, a mere four, five-ounce glasses of wine “starts getting close” to the amount of resveratrol they found effective, Dr. Weindruch said.

Do You Share a Little Vino With the Kids?

Eric Asimov, wine writer for the NY Times just wrote an absolutely well done, and timely piece about sharing a little wine with your teenagers at the dinner table. Good idea, bad idea? He wanted to know.

“The best evidence shows that teaching kids to drink responsibly is better than shutting them off entirely from it,” he told me. “You want to introduce your kids to it, and get across the point that that this is to be enjoyed but not abused.”

This is a subject near to me as I have teenagers in the household, and an obvious love of wine. My best wish would be for them to learn to enjoy moderately, as Kyle and I do, relishing the taste and appreciating the place it came from. I know many parents other than myself cringe at the idea of our kids binge drinking, and wonder what is the best way to ward it off (if that is completely possible). We worry that consuming wine at dinner sends mixed messages about alcohol consumption. I think the answer comes down to modeling appreciation and moderation. What better way to do that than a little vino with dinner?

Red wine heart benefits no different to other alcohols: study

Uh oh, does that mean we have to go back to drinking red wine because we love it?

This article in Food USA quoted a new study as finding that drinking red wine proved to be no more heart healthy than any other alcohol beverage. What will the next study say? Who knows. Until then I am going to drink what I like, in moderation of course.